Mine was blooming last april.

Absolutely! They bloom readily, as far as blooming house plants go.

"When does it flower?"
Usually during the spring/summer, but depends on conditions.

"And how often do they put out new leaves?"
This depends entirely on conditions, but they aren't very fast growing plants.

"How long can they live for as house plants?"
Indefinitely. I've had A. modestum for over 30 years.

I've uploaded many pics of my plants here. (Should go to a completed search of the Aglaonemas I have at allthingsplants.com.)

i bought a pink thai ag last december - it had a few flowers already and some leaves growing, then in mar-may (i replanted in larger pot mid-feb) it stopped producing leaves and just flowered A LOT! then finally the flowering stopped and it started producing leaves and side-shoots EVERYWHERE: like 5 shoots directly from the soil and side shoots on main stems at the bottom of the stem: on all stems. and it hasn't stopped since.
i expected it to be slow, but in 4 months i think it doubled in size. and it's still growing now. it is in very bright NE light with 3-4 hours of sun but only in summer. i think that contributed to faster growth.
oh, and it was planted in 100% pure coir peat when bought, but i replanted it after 2 months in 'jungle mix' that i mix for most of my plants: roughly 2 parts AV soil mix, 2 parts sphag peat, 4 parts reg MG perlite and 1-1.5 parts coir peat, re-used (what i shook off from the roots). and it went from 6" into 8" pot.
i also mulched to keep the soil from drying up on top - it likes to be evenly moist.
i expected it to be difficult (pink varieties are not as easy as green) - but it's been doing great.
i am ready now to get another one :).

Currently in bloom.

Found a stem outside last winter. Grown semi-hydro. Over the summer it's grown three branches

oh, that's nice!
mine are much smaller and sort of like half-closed tulip buds.

In my industry the old wives' tale is that the flowers weaken the Aglo and should be removed.

Some do this, some don't. I do.

I don't know if true.

How can the flowers weaken it?
also, can you get seeds from them after they flower?

The way I understand it,when a plant goes to flower,a great deal of it's energy is devoted to it...energy that could be going to overall growth instead.

Sometimes when a plant "thinks" it's dying,it will bolt to flower as a last ditch effort to get it's genes out there before it kicks.

Not sure how much truth there is to this,but it's what I've heard.

I think those tales stem from some confusion about annuals vs. perennials. There may also be some confusion about monocarpic plants, sometimes accidentally attributing this trait to the wrong plants.

meandering a bit here,but bear with a slight shift of topic.

Hypothetical situation: You're rooting a cutting of some sort and it hasn't developed roots yet and it starts trying to bloom.

Cut the blooms?

I would/do. :)

Edited to say interesting info though,thanks for that! :)

This post was edited by asleep_in_the_garden on Thu, Oct 9, 14 at 14:58

Nope. Add nutrients and enjoy.

...But Danny,..wouldn't added nitrogen prevent root development?

I always assumed that would burn new roots.

Maybe... But it has not been a noticeable problem for me but I also don't have many plants I grow for flowers. Every cutting I've started in the last few years I've started it in S/H with nutrients at full strength. Usually, they start growing both up and down fairly quickly. I've occasionally had things bloom and there wasn't any real difference.

I agree with asleep, I literally brought a nondescript agalomnea from a sale and it has flowers on it. I will leave them on only because i want seeds from them.

That's interesting,Danny...I'll have to try that sometime as an experiment.

I,..like you,..don't really grow plants specifically for blooms...kinda why I said "hypothetically". lol

Teen,..look up aglaonema commutatum and tell us if that's the one you got. From what I've been reading,that's the only one commercially available that has any chance of yielding fruit. Also worthy of note is that although getting a spathe and spadix configuration going isn't difficult,getting berries from it for some reason (I suspect it's due to the absence of the proper pollinator) is. I've never had one do it for me,however the local library has a couple of them that regularly do...which reminds me...I need to go there soon to see if there are any that are ready for harvest. I don't get out that way often,but it seems every time I do,those things are just waiting to be picked...nobody around here seems too interested in them but me...which is pretty cool!

Teen:
In aroids the female and male flowers are not in anthesis at the same time, in other words all the goodies aren't available when needed for self-pollination. You need to have one inflorescence with female anthesis while another is in male anthesis.

Normally the female flowers or parts of the flowers, depending on whether the type of aroid has perfect or imperfect flowers is in a receptive state and after it isn't anymore, the male flowers or parts of the flowers become active producing pollen. You need a male flower that is more mature than your receptive female flower. This prevents self-pollination.

As for hybrids, they would almost always be sterile.

Thus requiring two mature specimens in flower at the same time,which I imagine they would figure out by themselves if they were kept in proximity to one another...this is how it's happening at the library.

Yaknow...that may be a bigger part of the issue than I thought.

Maybe the only hurdle is getting two or more mature plants..?

Well, I don't know how mature the plants need to be in order to flower. I meant that the inflorescence of two separate plants need to be at different stages of development.

As I understand it: Lets say plant species "X" has an inflorescence that lasts ten days. During days 1 thru 4 the female flowers mature and are receptive. On days 5 & 6 they close and go belly-up. From days 7 thru 10 The male flowers come to life and are producing pollen.

The result is that you'd need one inflorescence that is in days 1 thru 4 of development and another inflorescence that is in days 7 thru 10. I suppose it is possible that these two inflorescence' could be on the same plant but it would probably be unlikely. Usually I've only seen aroids flower one after the other or two or three at the same time, not staggered.

All I can say is that it has been happening at the library,so apparently they somehow synchronize...pheromones and all that.

I'm waiting for berries to ripen on A. commutatum and A. modestum. (Pics of the unripe ones of both plants at the link I pasted above.) Both bloomed for 6 weeks or so earlier this year, though individual flowers don't last that whole time. It will be interesting to see what the resulting plants look like.

I suspect a feather duster (spreading pollen) may be part of the equation of the library berries?

Hadn't thought about a featherduster as a culprit before,but you may have something there!

Never knew modestum would give berries,but seeing as it isn't a hybrid,that makes sense. Looked at the link and saw some ags there but must have missed the berries. Then I went and did an image search for modestum berries and that got me nowhere...ya wouldn't be a total sweetheart and post a shot of that,would ya? I'd really like to see that.

If your commutatum and modestum have crossbred there's no telling what those berries will yield genetically speaking. If only the ripening process didn't take so long!

You absolutely HAVE to keep us posted on this! =)

aslessp_in_the_garden

Here is a website that features many pictures of the berries.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aglo Berries

Absolutely! They don't look anywhere near ripe yet, if they're going to get red and much bigger: A. modestum:

A. commutatum:

Thanks for the link,Need...cool pics! :)

Did the modestum have a head start,Purp? Kinda looks that way to me.

As to the commutatum,they should go yellow before turning red. First time I harvested berries,I got some yellow ones along with the red,but learned that seed is only viable once they've been red a while...yellow is no good.

I really am excited for you and your potential hybrids!

Mines is commutatum. I have seen them set seed with absoluely no help at all and only by self pollination(for there was only one plant) I will assist in the pollination however.

How do you intend to assist,Teen?

I have an idea what you mean,but would like to hear it in your own words as to avoid any confusion.

Please elaborate if you would be so kind.

....Orrrrrr blow me off to chase other posts. Meh.

Oh well.

*sigh*

Wouldn't be the first time. lol

Im so sorry asleep. It is sometimes difficult for me to get a computer, and also I tend to lose track. Sorry if I offended you.........

I only have a rough idea about pollinating A. communtatum. My idea is to just take pollen from one flower and rub it on the stigma(whereever it happens to be in that flower) and im assuming it will produce fruit. I might be wrong and would love to hear any critique/ideas :)

Again, sorry to upset u :/

Naw,man...
I'm cool. :)

Thanks for explaining,..kinda what I thought you meant,but was curious to hear your further input is all.

Anyhoo...as Danny was indicating above,a single plant will start with the male flowers and throw pollen,but by the time the female flowers are mature on the same plant,the pollen from before is spent(unless you could somehow keep it preserved?)and useless for this purpose. The plant has evolved this way presumably to prevent it from self fertilization,thus insuring biodiversity in the genepool. The offspring necessarily have two parents as opposed to just one. That's the idea anyway.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I've had an epiphany and suspect that the key to getting berries is just having two plants that are near enough to each other to "communicate" with pheromones. Once they have a rapport,they will synchronize,thus getting the timing right.

If/when I get blooms on the piece that Purp sent me,who knows? maybe the two could accomplish something!
As far as hand pollenizing aroids goes,there are tutorials out there that I've read...come to think of it there are probably youtubes of it too.

I'm gonna have to look into that! :)

Strange...I hoped to find video tutorials,but didn't really get anywhere. Bummer!

In the meantime,I found a thread from last year where this was being discussed.

The first of Danny's links(second post on the thread) should shed a lot of light on things.

Here is a link that might be useful: Can I pollinate Chinese Evergreen flowers?

there are posts in aroid forum about var. plants. that's where i found this link.
it's not about ags, but at least you'll understand the process better, so it should help some.

Here is a link that might be useful: aroid pollination

LOL that's the exact link I was talking about.

Thanks for the shortcut! :)

I tend to refrigerate pollen when breeding roses, probally would work here too....

Sounds like a plan!

Good luck. :)

So according to the Araceum website Aglaonema can self pollinate but I have not read that elsewhere. It would be interesting to be kept updated on it.

It is possible that there is a crossover in the periods of male/female anthesis. Maybe this is why many of the photos of berries show only a few berries rather than a large cluster although there could be other reasons for that too.

Aroid seeds do not store well which is why you don't often see them for sale so I wonder if the pollen will keep refrigerated for any length of time. Try a brand new small, soft paintbrush to collect pollen from the male part of the inflorescence and brush it on the female flowers. If you do this repeatedly over the time the flowers look active maybe it'll work. If you want to try to store it, wrap the brush it aluminum foil first.

I am inclined to think it wouldn't work but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

araceum is reliable; it even has an Id center for aroids that is linked to IAS.

Updates on the berries. There were 3 flowers forming them, but a critter damaged one. So here are the other 2, as of a few minutes ago. On A. commutatum.

The 2nd one.

Just like a stop light...green...to yellow...to red.

Nice progress Purp!

Can't wait 'til you're germinating them!

Shouldn't be too much longer now! =)

TYVM! Can't wait to see what comes up. A. modestum (plain species) and a hybrid cultivar plant ('Black Cherry,' AFAIK,) with red leaves were blooming at the same time.

When you get your first seed leaves you'll probably know right away if something crazy happened.

By the way...you may recall how many times I've stated how uncommon it is to get berries from home kept ags,and how I've even only recently mentioned(in your philo bloom thread at the aroids forum)that you have an uncanny knack for getting things to bloom...and now you're watching berries as they slowly mature on TWO separate species of aglaonema.

If anyone coulda pulled this off,it's you Purp.

You're just awesome!
Way to go,chick!! =)

TY, but I don't think the flattery is deserved. I just add water. ;) There has to be something good about living in a steam bath for half of the year, for something - it sure isn't the people!

Sorry if what I said was confusing above. These berries are both on A. commutatum, near those other plants, while all 3 were blooming.

AH okay.

Still pretty cool that your getting berries at all Purp...What's coming easy for you has been markedly difficult for others.

Be modest if you like,but you deserve the credit. :)